Still radiant after their triumphant lunar flyby, the astronauts of the Artemis II They made a call to their friends on board the International Space Station Tuesday as they headed home from the Moon.
It was the first radio connection between spacecraft. The Apollo crews POT They had no company off the planet in the 1960s and 1970s, the last time humanity set sail into deep space.
For Christina Koch on Artemis II and Jessica Meir aboard the space station, it marked a joyful space reunion despite being 230,000 miles away. The two teamed up to carry out the world’s first female spacewalk in 2019 outside the orbital laboratory.
He Houston Mission Control organized the cosmic talk between the four lunar travelers and the three NASA residents and the Frenchman of the space station.
1/8 | Artemis II leaves the dark side of the Moon: photos from the ship. NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft regained contact with Earth this Monday after spending about 40 minutes in absolute silence while flying over the far side of the Moon, a common interruption in this type of mission. – The Associated Press
At dawn on Tuesday, the commander of the Artemis II, Reid Wisemancontinued sending images of the previous day’s lunar rendezvous, which set a new distance record for humanity. The highlight: a photo of the sunset reminiscent of Apollo 8 in 1968.
Wiseman and his crew, the first lunar explorers since Apollo 17 in 1972, are scheduled to land off the coast of San Diego on Friday to conclude the nearly 10-day test flight.
Artemis III, a docking demonstration of a lunar lander in Earth orbit, will be launched next year. Artemis IV will follow in 2028 with two astronauts who will attempt to land near the lunar south pole.
This story was translated from English to Spanish with an artificial intelligence tool and was reviewed by an editor before publication.